Posts Tagged ‘Anthony J. Baker’

The legendary Austin hospitality is especially extended to first-time filmmakers. That’s what the Emerging Visions section is about—highlighting the talent making the move from attention-getting short to career-making features. In with a chance this time around are documentaries tackling topics like Bill Hicks and bears, as well as features revolving around mung beans and android love.

Remember 2008? Man, wasn’t that a time! We were all running around, registering to vote, filled with hope in our hearts, shouting “Yes, we can!” at the top of their lungs … 2010 and the suck has set in. That hasn’t stopped director Jeff Deutchman, so inspired by the spirit of the times that he made this documentary on what people were doing the day Barack Obama was elected president.

For many, getting to work means jumping into the car and enduring a slow commute to the infernal chatter of morning zoo radio. Problem is, all this four-wheeled to-ing and fro-ing is killing our planet by degrees. Monteith McCollum took his cameras and went looking for those who do it differently. He found a quartet of characters who have taken to the pavement and waterways to get to work.

This trailer for “A Film by Frank V. Ross” is a crystallization of the 2010 indie aesthetic. A chorus of voices exchange niceties and expressions of twentysomething angst. The visuals are of parties, meetings, cafe encounters. There is a steady stream of women. There are guys with facial hair and without facial hair looking at those women. There is a lot of thinking about sex without actual sex. There is an acknowledgement that these tensions continue in a workplace doomed to disappoint its employees. It is to now what Walking and Talking was to the early ’90s. What the trailer doesn’t tell you is what at the heart of this movie–a flirtation between an ATM parts purchaser and courier who meet on the ‘net. And no, we still don’t know who Audrey is. Screening at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival.